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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Interviewing Communists By Antonio C. Abaya Written May 14, 2006 For the Standard Today, May 16, 2006 In an interview on ANC last week with party-list congressman Teddy Casino, one of the Batasan 5, Ricky Carandang raised the point that the communist movement�s simultaneous armed and parliamentary struggles allows the communists to pursue their ideological goals both legally and illegally. Or words to that effect. In reply, Casino admitted that the armed and parliamentary struggles are two facets of the same movement and spring from the same worldview. Or words to that effect. Ricky was too nice a guy and did not press the point. He did not ask what would have been the next logical point: Doesn�t your answer then validate the Sword and Shield analogy of Joma Sison? In the 1980s, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma Sison likened the Communist movement to a Warrior armed with both a Sword and a Shield. The Sword is the New People�s Army (NPA) that strikes blows against the Enemy, and the Shield is the front organizations of the National Democratic Front. (NDF) that parry the attacks of the Enemy, to which must now be added some of the party-list congressmen, like Casino, who have been elected to Congress. It should be pointed out that a Shield, when swung with sufficient force, can be just as lethal as a Sword. The Communist movement in the Philippines thus enjoys the best of both worlds, and is allowed to have its cake and eat it at the same time. This would never have been allowed, Ricky could have pointed out, in Indonesia or Malaysia or Singapore or Thailand or Taiwan or South Korea. Onli in da istupid Pilipins. No wonder we have been overtaken and left behind by everyone else. Aside from making wrong choices in economic strategies, we have wasted time and treasure and human lives trying to stamp out a Maoist insurgency with half-cocked half-measures and a misplaced sense of pre-Bush American-style liberalism. In Malaysia and Singapore, the Internal Security Act, inherited from the British colonial government, gave and gives the state the right to jail anyone (even only merely) suspected of being a �subversive�, indefinitely (since reduced to �only� two years) and without trial. And in total anonymity. Communists there were/are not made into celebrities by complicit media, as they are here.. The military governments of Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea, in their time, did not even use such constitutional crutches in stamping out their communist movements with even more draconian measures. In a recent ANC interview by Pinky Webb, Satur Ocampo, another of the Batasan 5, admitted he was a member of the Communist Party, But not any more, added Satur (He was captured by the military about 17 years ago, with his equally ideologically committed wife, Bobbie Malay). Pinky could have observed that this was no big deal since it has long been CPP policy to cut ties with Party members who are captured. This is a tactical ploy, to give both Party and member deniability that they are involved in each other�s activities. But it does not mean that the captured (or expelled) Party member, such as Satur, has forsaken the Party�s goals or has stopped working for the attainment of those goals, which include the overthrow of the bourgeois government and state, and the establishment of a Maoist dictatorship of the proletariat. As far as I know, despite hundreds of interviews in print, radio and TV, no one in Philippine media has bothered to question Party militants, whether in the armed or in the parliamentary struggle, on their societal goals. It is so easy to find glaring flaws and faults in our dysfunctional society and government. But what exactly do they want to install in its place? Based on the practice of Communism in Maoist China and the Soviet Union and their vassal states, Communists or Marxist-Leninists want to establish a one-party police state, in which the Communist Party enjoys monopoly of political, economic and social power; in which either there are no elections, or, if there are elections, only candidates from the Communist Party appear in the ballots; in which all media outlets, all schools, all book publishing, all banks, all utilities, all mines, all factories, all agriculture, all business enterprises are owned, controlled and operated by the socialist state; in which all protest rallies and all industrial strikes are strictly forbidden, except when choreographed by the socialist state or the Communist Party; in which all churches are subservient to the socialist state, even in the matter of appointing bishops, etc. What exactly, if any, will Filipino Communists do differently from their comrades abroad and in the past, and why? And, most importantly, what gives Satur and Teddy and the rest of that na�ve and garrulous gang the supreme confidence that they, Filipino Communists, will succeed in building the Perfect State and Society that Communism is claimed to be, when the Russians failed even after 74 years (1917-1991), the East Europeans failed even after 44 years (1945-1989), and the Chinese failed even after 30 years (1949-1979)? I posed that question years ago to the late Renato Constantino Sr. and Joma Sison. Neither bothered to reply. But the public has the right to know, since Communists are so arrogant and over-bearing and want to impose their vision on the rest of us, as if they had all the answers to all the questions. If they are truly independent and are not willing dupes of, and cosmetic artists for, the Communists, then Philippine media should press them on this point. In the Philippine masa context, the appeal of Communism is the promise that everyone will be pantay-pantay under Communism. Nothing could be farther from the historical truth. In the late, unlamented Soviet Union, which inflicted its presence on more than a hundred million unwilling victims for 74 years, the ruling elite known as the nomenklatura, who made up less than one percent of the population, enjoyed perks and lifestyles unknown to the average Soviet citizen. The nomenklatura had their own vacation resorts; their own elite schools for their children; their own modern hospitals where they were confined four- to one-to a room, depending on rank (compared to 12-to-a-room in the average rundown polyklinik for the ordinary Soviet citizens); their own generously stocked restaurants (the most famous one, inside the Kremlin, charged its powerful clientele pre-World War II prices even as late as the 1970s); their own luxury shops, called beryoshki, stocked with capitalist consumer goods, while the average Soviet citizens had to make do with shoddy and inferior Soviet products, and where the Russian ruble was not acceptable as medium of exchange, only US dollars, German marks, Japanese yens, Swiss francs, etc��from all of which the ordinary Soviet citizen was pointedly excluded. The nomenklatura enjoyed their privileged status all the way from Stalin to Gorbachev. Low prices? One of the boasts of Soviet socialism was that the price of a loaf of bread had not changed since the 1920s, a few kopecks or a few US cents. True, but the selling price of that loaf of bread had long been overtaken by the cost of producing it. So state resources went to subsidizing low prices, rather than in increasing production capacities. It became the conundrum of Soviet economics. Low prices, yes. But everything in short supply. Soviet citizens coped by always carrying a just-in-case string bag (whose Russian name escapes me at present) in their pockets or purse, �just-in-case� they chanced on a new delivery of eggs or potatoes or wine or shoes or ball pens or toilet paper or chicken or chocolates or fruits or fish or sugar or razor blades, on their way home from work. Because of the socialist rejection of private profit (as called for by Marx�s theory of surplus value), all enterprises � including tailoring shops, taxis, tobacco kiosks, shoe repair shops, etc � were owned and operated by the socialist state. All agricultural production was in the hands of collective farms (kolkhozi) or state farms (sovkhozi). But producers were paid only to produce, not to transport their produce to sell in the markets; that was the function of other state enterprises. It was estimated that 30% of Soviet agricultural production rotted at railway sidings because no one came to transport them to the markets soon enough, thus compounding the chronic food shortage.. Environmental degradation? The worst nuclear accident ever happened, not in the profit-mad capitalist countries, but in Chernobyl, in 1986, in the high-minded Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Chernobyl nuclear reactor was deemed too primitive to be allowed to operate in any capitalist country. When the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989 and millions of Eastern Europeans literally walked away from their communist regimes, thousands of Wartburgs and Trabants (cars produced in East Germany, the most technologically advanced country in the socialist bloc) were abandoned at the East-West border because their smoky and noisy two-stroke engines (like our tricycles�) could not pass the anti- pollution standards in the capitalist West. The Aral Sea, an inland lake several times bigger than our Laguna de Bay, shrunk from 26,000 sq miles to 13,000, after the rivers feeding into it were diverted to irrigate the cotton fields of the Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan Soviet Socialist Republics in the 1980s To this day, the rusting hulls of scores of ships and boats lie grounded in the shallows like beached whales. Human rights? What human rights? Communists and pro-communists are infatuated with a Theoretical Ideal that does not exist in reality, never did, and never will. If after 74 years of total control, all they can come up with is a pathetic failure like the Soviet Union, then all the hardships and all the sacrifices and all the manufactured hatred in the name of class struggle were all for naught. Communism as an Ideal is not worth one human life. Philippine media should educate themselves on this matter so that they can ask the hard questions whenever they interview Communists. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles since 2002 in www.tapatt.org. Current articles also in tonyabaya.multiply.com OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| Reactions to �Interviewing Communists� Attaboy, Tony: I hope you don't stop swinging away at these misguided, sanctimonious communists and their complicit sympathizers in the media. Academia ought to be held to account as well, where the cadres get their initial mis-education � Tato Constantino's favorite term. No one seems to be aware of what communism is all about any more because no one bothers to expose its wrong-headedness. Manny Valdehuesa, [email protected] Cagayan de Oro, May 16, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww VERY GOOD Tony. Hit them hard for the truth. Let us expose the hypocrisy of these people. The thousands of simple dependents of workers who were impoverished by the treasonous strikes organized by the reds should now start throwing stones at these fake leaders. These should stop any leftist from priding themselves as spokesmen of the manggagawa . Jun Apolonio, [email protected] Singapore, May 17, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww D b, when an NPA claims to burn buses or magpasabog ng kotse or whatever, or revoltuionary taxes, they are so quiet? Pero pag militar ang gumawa ng kalokohan, nasa kalye na agad sila. I believe mga NPA talaga yan. Para saakin, NPA pera lang din katapat ng mga yan. Wala rin ako amor sa mga iyan. But my no love for these groups does not mean that GMA's dirty tricks department is abswelto na. Mike Delgado, [email protected] May 17, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww SIR, WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF FILIPINO COMMUNISM? DO YOU AGREE THAT THE PHILIPPINES IS STILL SEMI-FEUDAL AND SEMI-COLONIAL? SALAMAT PO NG MARAMI. Jun Ponsaran, [email protected] May 17, 2006 MY REPLY. You obviously have your own definition of Filipino Communism. Why don�t you state YOUR definition, and I will give my opinion as to whether it has any chances of success. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Why bother with them so much when they will not win. They can only join up with mlcontents when there is some perceived stability. Ross Tipon, [email protected] Baguio City, May 17, 2006 MY REPLY. Why do you bother with people who believe in God? We are all going to die, anyway. Same question. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Solid... valid... and logical points in your article. I have been watching with fascination, not forgetting my own moment of fascination. I recall in NY at City College, I was turned off by rationalizations and outright fabrications, ignoring truth and reality, back in '47 and '48. Jack Sherman, [email protected] May 17, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: I know you, but your probably don't know me. We met one time at a CFA seminar in the 1980s. But congratulations on this hard-hitting piece. I hope the Philippine Press Institute will take up the challenge by conducting seminars on Philippine politics, or political ideologies. Our journalists are so naive and ignorant. More power to you! Cris Maslog, [email protected] May 18, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hello Tony, Whenever I have an email from you I would open it right away, ahead of the others, with my usual attitude to all your posts - enthusiastic to know and learn what you have sent me. 'How should one interview a communist?' was for me an interesting topic until I finished reading your posts. Unfortunately, after three paragraphs, I am sorry to say, Tony, there was hardly anything to keep my enthusiasm going. You know how it is when you see the same "blah-blah-blah" all over again. But not all was without merit. The suggestion on how the media should conduct interviews on communists is okay. I like suggestions. Any suggestion for me is worth looking at, even if, you, Tony, did not elaborate or give any details how, when and where.. How should media do it? Should the focus be always on how to ferret out the truth and lies about communism [perhaps the truth and lies of your take (are there no others?) that you never fail to mention whenever the reds cross your line of sight] out of irritation perhaps from seeing the communist still around, many armed, healthy and strong, roaming the countryside and a few [but growing in number] gracing the halls of congress, and you, Tony, sitting uneasily in your office, helpless to stop them???? Plus, more effort to insult, ridicule, lambaste them before the public with all malice and wickedness??? You know Tony, more of these truths and lies from you will one day make me think and feel the same way as you do toward the reds. Hehe, that probably is your aim [without trying to put words into your mouth], also when you demand that the same surly treatment should be meted out to these "evil" reds by the others in your profession [not yet your converts]. Frankly, I can't take it out on you for feeling that way. Everyone is entitled to his opinion and his biases or prejudices of whom and on what, true or not, alone or with many others. In our democratic society we are all entitled to how we should react to a particular stimulus. Oh, we all know that! I would like to take up your call expressed in this quote from your post "Philippine media should educate themselves on this matter so that they can ask the hard questions whenever they interview Communists." On what matter? Must the education be in that regard as you prescribed so we can get these uncooperative [to your cause] or low quality media [based on your standards] to be aligned with you? Hoping that the truth and lies about communism as they appear to you will reach and convince the Filipino masa and the communists themselves to abandon and rid themselves of the die-hards in their ranks, so that for once we can be united in our pursuit in the manner and direction that you feel are right. I would like that, too. In the manner and direction of your preference?? Not necessarily. I wonder why others [only my observation], I mean, most of the columnists and media personalities have not taken up your cause, Tony? It makes me wonder if the communists are the major factor that is pulling us down and damaging all our chances of improving ourselves. Of course, they are a factor but not, I think, as damning as you make it sound or take it, Tony. Listen to your very own words, "Aside from making wrong choices in economic strategies, we have wasted time and treasure and human lives trying to stamp out a Maoist insurgency with half-cocked half-measures and a misplaced sense of pre-Bush American-style liberalism." As you say there are other factors of wastage in time and treasure and human lives. Perhaps to the majority of your peers, the most damning factor were [still are] the wrong choices in economic strategies and also the misplaced pre-Bush liberalism. Yes, for these strategies would have incorporated tactics that will limit the influence of the communists. Bush liberalism as the cure for communism? I like to see this. I would like to very much because it appears that our communists have become more active since Bush started his own brand of liberalism and world domination. (Bush is not a liberal. He is a conservative, a neo-conservative. ACA) Hey, maybe Bush should back off from this one. It's making our reds more aggressive! Bush is making them look and act like his personally defined terrorists. Ay-ay, I remember fully well that Bush was nowhere in the political picture when the German-East reds met with its west, when the USSR ceased its communistic designs, and when China started to take a good hard look at communism in the field of profit generation around the world's markets. Keep on writing, Tony. But please don't forget, you need to listen to your readers for you to reach out with excellence. I know you understand that. Forgive me for saying so, but like your communist story, I have nothing more [else] to write at this moment in time. Ogie Reyes, [email protected] May 18, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded) Ogie, After reading your message to Tony Abaya, I have decided to send you the attached "Comparative View of Three Social Systems." There's hardly a difference between capitalism and communism, as shown by this comparative study. (If you are really convinced that �there is hardly a difference between capitalism and communism� and not just engaging in supercilious sophistry, then you should have no hesitation about moving yourself and your family to either North Korea or Cuba, the only communist countries left, and spending as many years there as you have spent in a capitalist country. Then and only then, after 10, 20, 30 years there can you tell us with any authority that �there is hardly a difference between capitalism and communism. Bon voyage!. ACA) If only those guys who automatically rant against communists (or those they have identified as such) had bothered to compare the "Communist Manifesto" with what are being done actually in capitalist countries! Not too long ago, I revisited Karl Marx in his Das Kapital. I find it to be a boring and repetitious essay on "surplus value." But Marx is a damn good writer insofar as arousing your dander is concerned. I am not surprised, therefore, that many intellectuals, including Catholic priests, become communists even before they reach the end of Das Kapital. Gifted with acerbic wit, like when he says, "I almost forgot that revolutions are not made in accordance with law." I am also attaching a short chapter of my book, A Treatise on Money. The chapter, "A Theory of Value," discusses Marx's "surplus value," which constitutes the very foundation of international communism. Nito Doria, May 19, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded by Maryann O�Connor, [email protected]) Jonathan Pansacola <[email protected]> wrote: To: [email protected] From: Jonathan Pansacola <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 23:24:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: RE: [pansacola] Fwd: Interviewing Communists Indeed, pati sa subversion huli ang Pilipinas. Proven na flawed at failure ang communist ideology (China had to disavow many of its principles to get where it is now, though it's still quite imperfect for all its perceived wealth). Many of the armed cadres are nothing more than extortionists - they just establish a parallel local government where they are in charge. Always the losers are the common people caught in between - with the double taxation imposed by the government and the communists, there is very little hope for the few entrepreneurs to rise above their poverty. vics magsaysay <[email protected]> wrote: Thanks, MeAn! Interesting nga naman: bumagsak na ang Berlin Wall; iyong mga Eastern Europeans halos tinakwil na ang kuminista...pati ang China, capitalista na kahit sabihing kumunista kuno...pero itong ating mga kapatid sa bundok, nahuhuli pa rin sa balita. Iyung ayusin ang gobyerno ng mga corrupt at ganid na opisyal, oks, tama sila; pero iyung gawing kumunista ang Pinas, nakakalungkot dahil subok na ang kabiguan nito. Di na lang magkaisa ang lahat at umaksyon tulad ng ginagawa ng GK...at siguradong may direksyon at kaunlaran pa ang bayan. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reactions to �New Breed of Leaders� (May 09, 2006) Much as I have my disagreements with a few of the Church's stands on social issues, I have to give them a lot of credit for the timely success of EDSA 1. It was their media that kept the people informed of what was going on. People trust the Church to do that, and so far, they have proved to be solid in their wisdom. The political climate today is such that many would support this "New Breed of Leaders" if they are backed by Church Leaders such as Lagdameo. There are very few political (I do consider the Philippine Catholic Church a political force) forces that have the clout, the manpower, and the money, to take the bull by the horns, and make this change. Good luck to them. God Bless all of us Peter Capotosto, [email protected] May 16, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony----I read your articles and forward to a number of friends---they never complain or comment. This article and the latest are really interesting and in fact the one I am referring to--New Breed of Leaders--is fantastic. I sort of wonder ---- with regards to the so-called communists --- the real problem I find with these guys is they proclaim communism---but they don�t know what is communism. To me this is the most unsettling fact. Tomorrow if it was fashionable to be a---whatever ----- then they would promote that as anideal plan. So while they are there---- whether we like it/or them or not ---- the BBBBB's are there. I was wondering how you see the politics of Nepal---how do we if we do of course compare your commos to the Maoists there. Interesting how quickly things have developed in Vietnam mate----seems to be the place. What are they doing that Manila is not doing. Tony---do you see or know any-----NEW BREED of LEADERS???? Is there anyone likely to volunteer---- John Craige, [email protected] Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 17, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, I have been following your articles since the time you included me in your recipient list. Since then, I came to appreciate your articles whetherIi agree or disagree with it. It�s a good source of mental exercise for me to write, albeit in my personal diary, articles for or against yours. While I agree with this particular article, I just cant help but react to your personal opinion of GK as being co opted by GMA. GK has been non partisan, non sectarian, non exclusive but an all inclusive, platform for nation building. While it has been helping the administration pursue rehabilitation programs especially in typhoon ravaged areas, it has been working also with the opposition in their respective political districts, towns or province. Take for example the case of Chiz Escudero when he principally sponsored a house resolution adopting GK as a flagship program for the HOR. does that mean GK is now being co opted by the opposition? Take for example its outstanding partnership with the Muslim community in re building war-ravaged area of Camp Abubakar, does it mean that GK is now being co opted by the MILF? GK has also attracted other religious groups to join its cause - the Evangelicals in the rehabilitation of the typhoon affected areas, the Mormon in mobilizing its members for community volunteer work, etc.. Does this mean GK is now co opted by the Protestants? Surely these entities, just like the rest of GK's avid partners and supporters from the business community as well, are politically sensitive. If they sensed at the first instance that GK is co opted by GMA, they would have gone away. But the bond is getting stronger as days pass by and the GK bandwagon is getting bigger and going full steam ahead. Why don�t you try to expose yourself to GK and see if you can join the bandwagon instead of making assertions to the contrary of the GK spirit without a personal knowledge of how GK is doing in the first place? Thank you and God bless!! Jones Dizon, [email protected] May 17, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony- How about hiring Hugo Chavez as at least consultant? But seriously, It certainly sounds like the Philippines needs someone like him. All best, David Szanton, [email protected] Berkeley, California, May 15, 2006 Chavez Is a Threat Because He Offers the Alternative of a Decent Society By John Pilger May 13, 2006 I have spent the past three weeks filming in the hillside barrios of Caracas, in streets and breeze-block houses that defy gravity and torrential rain and emerge at night like fireflies in the fog. Caracas is said to be one of the world's toughest cities, yet I have known no fear; the poorest have welcomed my colleagues and me with a warmth characteristic of ordinary Venezuelans but also with the unmistakable confidence of a people who know that change is possible and who, in their everyday lives, are reclaiming noble concepts long emptied of their meaning in the west: "reform", "popular democracy", "equity", "social justice" and, yes, "freedom". The other night, in a room bare except for a single fluorescent tube, I heard these words spoken by the likes of Ana Lucia Fernandez, aged 86, Celedonia Oviedo, aged 74, and Mavis Mendez, aged 95. A mere 33-year-old, Sonia Alvarez, had come with her two young children. Until about a year ago, none of them could read and write; now they are studying mathematics. For the first time in its modern era, Venezuela has almost 100% literacy. This achievement is due to a national programme, called Mision Robinson, designed for adults and teenagers previously denied an education because of poverty. Mision Ribas is giving everyone a secondary school education, called a bachillerato. (The names Robinson and Ribas refer to Venezuelan independence leaders from the 19th century.) Named, like much else here, after the great liberator Simon Bolivar, "Bolivarian", or people's, universities have opened, introducing, as one parent told me, "treasures of the mind, history and music and art, we barely knew existed". Under Hugo Chavez, Venezuela is the first major oil producer to use its oil revenue to liberate the poor. Mavis Mendez has seen, in her 95 years, a parade of governments preside over the theft of tens of billions of dollars in oil spoils, much of it flown to Miami, together with the steepest descent into poverty ever known in Latin America; from 18% in 1980 to 65% in 1995, three years before Chavez was elected. "We didn't matter in a human sense," she said. "We lived and died without real education and running water, and food we couldn't afford. When we fell ill, the weakest died. In the east of the city, where the mansions are, we were invisible, or we were feared. Now I can read and write my name, and so much more; and whatever the rich and their media say, we have planted the seeds of true democracy, and I am full of joy that I have lived to witness it." Latin American governments often give their regimes a new sense of legitimacy by holding a constituent assembly that drafts a new constitution. When he was elected in 1998, Chavez used this brilliantly to decentralise, to give the impoverished grassroots power they had never known and to begin to dismantle a corrupt political superstructure as a prerequisite to changing the direction of the economy. His setting-up of misions as a means of bypassing saboteurs in the old, corrupt bureaucracy was typical of the extraordinary political and social imagination that is changing Venezuela peacefully. This is his "Bolivarian revolution", which, at this stage, is not dissimilar to the post-war European social democracies. Chavez, a former army major, was anxious to prove he was not yet another military "strongman". He promised that his every move would be subject to the will of the people. In his first year as president in 1999, he held an unprecedented number of votes: a referendum on whether or not people wanted a new constituent assembly; elections for the assembly; a second referendum ratifying the new constitution - 71% of the people approved each of the 396 articles that gave Mavis and Celedonia and Ana Lucia, and their children and grandchildren, unheard-of freedoms, such as Article 123, which for the first time recognised the human rights of mixed-race and black people, of whom Chavez is one."The indigenous peoples," it says, "have the right to maintain their own economic practices, based on reciprocity, solidarity and exchange ... and to define their priorities ... " The little red book of the Venezuelan constitution became a bestseller on the streets. Nora Hernandez, a community worker in Petare barrio, took me to her local state-run supermarket, which is funded entirely by oil revenue and where prices are up to half those in the commercial chains. Proudly, she showed me articles of the constitution written on the backs of soap-powder packets. "We can never go back," she said. In La Vega barrio, I listened to a nurse, Mariella Machado, a big round black woman of 45 with a wonderfully wicked laugh, stand and speak at an urban land council on subjects ranging from homelessness to the Iraq war. That day, they were launching Mision Madres de Barrio, a programme aimed specifically at poverty among single mothers. Under the constitution, women have the right to be paid as carers, and can borrow from a special women's bank. From next month, the poorest housewives will get about �120 a month.It is not surprising that Chavez has now won eight elections and referendums in eight years, each time increasing his majority, a world record. He is the most popular head of state in the western hemisphere, probably in the world. That is why he survived, amazingly, a Washington-backed coup in 2002. Mariella and Celedonia and Nora and hundreds of thousands of others came down from the barrios and demanded that the army remain loyal. "The people rescued me," Chavez told me. "They did it with all the media against me, preventing even the basic facts of what had happened. For popular democracy in heroic action, I suggest you need look no further." The venomous attacks on Chavez, who arrives in London tomorrow, have begun and resemble uncannily those of the privately owned Venezuelan television and press, which called for the elected government to be overthrown. Fact-deprived attacks on Chavez in the Times and the Financial Times this week, each with that peculiar malice reserved for true dissenters from Thatcher's and Blair's one true way, follow a travesty of journalism on Channel 4 News last month, which effectively accused the Venezuelan president of teaming up with Iran, an absurd fantasy. The reporter sneered at policies to eradicate poverty and presented Chavez as a sinister buffoon, while Donald Rumsfeld was allowed to liken him to Hitler, unchallenged. In contrast, Tony Blair, a patrician with no equivalent democratic record, having been elected by a fifth of those eligible to vote and having caused the violent death of tens of thousands of Iraqis, is allowed to continue spinning his truly absurd political survival tale. Chavez is, of course, a threat, especially to the United States. Like the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who based their revolution on the English co-operative moment, and the moderate Allende in Chile, he offers the threat of an alternative way of developing a decent society: in other words, the threat of a good example in a continent where the majority of humanity has long suffered a Washington-designed peonage. In the US media in the 1980s, the "threat" of tiny Nicaragua was seriously debated until it was crushed. Venezuela is clearly being "softened up" for something similar. A US army publication, Doctrine for Asymmetric War against Venezuela, describes Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution as the "largest threat since the Soviet Union and Communism". When I said to Chavez that the US historically had had its way in Latin America, he replied: "Yes, and my assassination would come as no surprise. But the empire is in trouble, and the people of Venezuela will resist an attack. We ask only for the support of all true democrats." John Pilger's new book, Freedom Next Time, is published next month by Bantam Press www.johnpilger.com OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |